Earthlight

I grew up in Arizona, at a time when there were no streetlights in my home town of Scottsdale. (It was not then the playground of the wealthy that it is today, but rather a decidedly blue collar town dominated by Motorola's defense industries plant where my father worked.) The night sky, even from my backyard, was glorious. I remember well my older brother Richard and I lying in the grass looking up at the Hyades in the winter sky, seeing naked eye as many stars as one can see today only with binoculars. (My eyesight was better back then too.)

Another thing we loved to do was go fishing. There were trout streams to the north, within a day's drive up in the high elevations around Flagstaff. But closer to home were the reservoirs along the Salt River.  The closest was Saguaro Lake. There we'd go out on the boat docks at sunset and fish deep into the night, with the awesome splendour of a truly dark sky overhead, and the utter silence of the nocturnal desert all around - the only sound being our never ending conversation and the almost nonexistent wavelets lapping against the dock.

Saguaro Lake

On one such trip, we fished (and talked) the whole night through. Dawn was approaching but there was still not a hint of it in the sky, when over the dark line of the mountains to the east (visible in the above picture) we were startled by an unbelievable and utterly mysterious sight. What appeared to be a gigantic blue dome was ever so slowly lifting itself into the sky. It seemed almost transparent, and the color was something I had never seen outside a tank full of tropical fish - an electric blue, yet so clear you felt you could see right through it. Imagine an insanely large soap bubble rising into view and you might get something of the idea.

My brother and I had no idea what it could be, and didn't even try to guess. We just watched transfixed as it slowly swelled into a full hemisphere of perfect wonder and absolute mystery. Then, in an instant all became clear. At either side of the blue dome, there appeared 2 unbearably bright points of light that put all into perspective. We had been watching the unlit side of a pencil thin late crescent moon precede the sun in its rising. Before you knew it, the entire crescent was visible. The mystery had disappeared in a flash, but the magic remained. Bathed in Earthlight, the Moon reflected ourselves back to ourselves, and it was beautiful.